Villains or heroes of the Fatherland?
One criterion - a personal contribution to the cause of strengthening and prosperity of the Russian state
A lot of old problems and troubles have accumulated in our army over the past decades, which, it seems, have begun to be solved. The military budget is growing. The Armed Forces are quickly rearming, changing their appearance. Military increased salaries. A long-term housing epic, painful for people in uniform, ends. Today the army at first glance looks much better than a few years ago. But one of the unresolved, old, overripe is the question of the ideology, spirit, glorification of its military stories.
Any army cannot exist without an idea, traditions born from it and, of course, heroes. This is like a refueling for military equipment, when the most modern aircraft loaded to the eye of ammunition does not take off if it has dry tanks. Our army’s ideological “tanks” are not empty, but so many differently “fuel” are surprisingly mixed in them: from high-quality kerosene to, excuse me, donkey's urine, that its longitude, range and safety of its “flight” should be doubted.
Name Rosa Luxemburg
At the time of the birth of the Red Army, which arose as if out of the blue, in the pantheon of the glory of its heroes, who inspired the revolutionary fighters to the feat, was gaping emptiness. The first, in the absence of their own, were the heroes borrowed "over the hill": Spartak, Marat, Robespierre, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin ... This is not counting, of course, the founding fathers of the Red Army themselves: comrades Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin and others , whose names were called airplanes, armored cars and armored trains. Popular were then the popular rebels Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, who fought with the autocracy for the freedom of the working people. In 30-s, thanks to radio and cinema, the names of the “first marshal” of Voroshilov, Budyonny, Chapaev thundered all over the country ...
In connection with the unsuccessful beginning of the Great Patriotic War, time demanded a change of heroes for the soldiers and commanders of the retreating Red Army. Luxembourgers and libknechts, as well as Trotsky and others, who by then were enemies of the people, former party allies, were archived. And one of the frosty days of November 41 in the central square of the country almost forgotten names sounded from the rostrum of the Mausoleum: Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Suvorov, Dmitry Pozharsky, Dmitry Donskoy. For a long time, all of them were listed as hostile elements, representatives of the exploiting classes.
With the enemy in the same trench
Alas, with the end of the war, the revision of the ideological policy did not happen. It’s just that the “ideological trench” along with the former domestic revolutionaries and insurgents turned out to be a loyal Tsar servant Alexander Suvorov, who was persecuting the troubled Poles (who became our allies), the thief and the kata Emelku Pugachev. Or the holy blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, known not only as the winner of the Germans and Swedes, but also as the initiator of the suppression for the interests of all of Russia of the uprising raised by the Novgorodians. However, this is not the only incident, stumbling block standing in the way of the return of the Russian army to its true origins and true heroes.
On the eve of another significant event - the Decembrist uprisings, I would like to consider closer people who for a long time were almost models, standards for Soviet officers of later generations, who became dull and incomprehensible to the images of Chapaev and Voroshilov, who gradually migrated into anecdotes and bikes.
The Decembrists, though considered “terribly far from the people,” were nevertheless favored by Soviet propaganda as the “right” nobles — people of honor, conscience, and duty, who decided to rid the people of the hated monarchs by establishing a democratic republic. Who has not heard of the support of their ideas by young Pushkin, other beau monde workers of that time? Who has not watched the film “The Star of Captivating Happiness,” did not read books romanticizing their feat of self-sacrifice for the sake of a bright future? And how was it really? What kind of people were these? We will use some documents of that era, including the memoirs of eyewitnesses, contemporaries, and protocols of their interrogations.
Stars of deceptive happiness
So, what did their commanders promised the soldiers, giving the order to go to the Senate Square in connection with the need to swear allegiance to Emperor Nicholas, who came to the throne instead of his brother Constantine who had refused him? For example, captain Alexander Bestuzhev, without batting an eye, lied to his guards dragoons: “Konstantin sent me to you. If you believe in God, you will refuse to swear to another king than the one to whom you swore allegiance ... "And Lieutenant Anton Arbuzov, who commanded the naval guards crew, frankly blackmailed his subordinates:" An entire army stands in the vicinity of the capital, and we will be destroyed if we swear oath to Nikolai. " By the way, “Long live the Constitution!” - soldiers deceived by officers shouted, believing that this was the name of Konstantin Pavlovich’s wife.
After Nikolay Pavlovich’s attempt to persuade the rebels to surrender, which ended in a firefight, the governor of the capital, army favorite of Infantry General Mikhail Miloradovich, departed to the rebel troops. He addressed the soldiers who knew him well - the veterans of the Patriotic War with the simple question: “Which of you was with me at Kulm, Lutzen, Bautzen?” Those, hiding from shame eyes, were silent. "Well, thank God," exclaimed the general, "that there is not a single Russian soldier here!" After these words of the beloved combat general in the ranks of the rebellious troops, there was a noticeable excitement: among the grenadiers there were many of his comrades, participants in the glorious foreign campaign. And then dismissed from the army in due time for “noise and various indiscretions ... failure to pay money to the pastry shop and laziness to serve”, Lieutenant Peter Kakhovsky treacherously shot into the back of the national hero. First he coolly killed the commander of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, Colonel Nicholas Styurler.
Only after that, Nikolai Pavlovich ordered the use of artillery that put an end to the rebellion. A few days later, the Chernigov regiment stationed in Ukraine rebelled. However, here the situation got out of control of Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Muravyov-Apostol and Lieutenant Mikhail Bestuzhev-Rumin, who had led the rebellion, for another reason. Their subordinates (about a thousand people), after drinking heavily, apparently, for the courage of wine (184 buckets), began to rage, tearing off their epaulettes from officers, robbing civilians. They were beaten and the regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gustav Gebel. They brought to life only gun volleys.
Heroes from the inside
What did the Decembrists want all the same, who often appealed to God as the highest authority? Graf de Toll noted in his notes: “On the more than a hundred Decembrists living in Chita, only thirteen remained Christians, most of them were fond of Christianity either indifferently, or skeptically, or outright hostile ... They often mocked faith and especially observance of holidays , fasting and prayers. " But this did not prevent them from remaining fighters for freedom. And what is interesting: all the Decembrists were noble landowners, had serfs. And although Alexander I, at the beginning of his reign, issued the law “On Free Plowmen”, according to which landowners could release the peasants to the will (and always with the land), the freedom-loving Decembrists for some reason did not rush to use it. But the imperial general Miloradovich fallen from their hands did it at once, freeing all his peasants.
Well, what did the Decembrists see Russia of the future, freed from the despot tsar? Prince Sergei Trubetskoy was appointed to lead the rebel forces during the uprising, who were given the rights of a dictator. That is, in the event of their victory, Russia was not expected by a republic, not by democracy, but by a military dictatorship by the junta. The ideologue of the uprising, the author of Russkaya Pravda, a program document for the Decembrists, Colonel Pavel Pestel, believed that “gendarmes would be sufficient for the entire state to compile the internal 50 000 guards ...” And with the stranglers of freedom - the Romanovs, the number of gendarmes hardly reached five thousand. Further, the freedom-loving and free-thinker would consider deploying a network of secret agents and sex-workers: “Secret investigations and espionage are therefore not only permissible and lawful, but ... one can say the only means by which the highest piety is supplied.” It is felt that the rebels were strong-willed, resolute and probably very persistent and courageous people.
Is it so? Not really. For example, the failed dictator Colonel General Staff Prince Trubetskoy in the fateful day did not appear at all on the square. During the investigation, he first denied everything, and when, during the interrogation, irrefutable evidence was brought against him, he fell at the feet of the emperor and begged him for mercy. The same Pestel wrote penitential letters from the chamber of the Peter and Paul Fortress: “... I cannot justify myself before His Majesty. I ask only for mercy. ” The murderer Peter Kakhovsky confessed to his sovereign during interrogation: “My intentions were pure, but I see that he was mistaken in his methods. I do not dare ask you to forgive me of my delusion. I am already torn to pieces by your mercy to me ... "The romantic uprising is the poet Alexander Odoyevsky, who exclaimed on the square:" We will die! Oh, how glorious we will die! ”, Being in bonds, began writing denunciations of all the participants in the conspiracy known to him. And in this he was, alas, not alone. Perhaps the most disgusting thing that they gave out was not only the organizers, but also their subordinates, soldiers, who had been shot down by them for insurrection. However, the money needed for the “holy” uprising, the officers took the gentlemen from the same soldiers, not shunning to get into the regimental cashier.
"Deep in Siberian ores"
Interestingly, the prisoners were not beaten, tortured, or humiliated. During the investigation, they were put in solitary cells of the Peter and Paul Fortress, shackled and transferred to bread and water. Only five of them were executed, and the remaining 120 members of the uprising from among the nobles were sentenced to hard labor and settlement for various periods in Siberia. But they committed a state crime, a military coup, planned to take the life of the monarch, his family members, killed several people. For such things in other democratic countries they would be threatened with something more terrible. For example, in good old England, where only for talking about changing the laws of Her Majesty Colonel Edward Despéradi in 1807, they first hanged it, but after a minute they took it out of the loop. Then he had the entrails torn out, which were thrown into a fire laid out in front of him. And only after that he was beheaded, and the body was quartered.
And, finally, a lot of tears and wails have been shed over the bitter sufferings that the unfortunate "in the depths of Siberian ores" underwent. And what was really? Two years later, the shackles were removed from the Decembrists and the hard labor became something of an occupational therapy for them. “In the summer,” an eyewitness testifies, “a moat fell asleep, the watchmen and servants of the women bustled around, carrying folding chairs and chess to the work site. The guard officer shouted: “Gentlemen, it's time to go to work! Who is coming today? If there were not enough volunteers, the officer imploringly said: “Gentlemen, have anyone else add! And then the commandant will notice that very little! ". The watchmen carried shovels. Arriving at the place, having breakfast, drinking tea, playing chess. The soldiers settled down to rest. The warders finished the prisoners' breakfast. When exiles, as is well known, lived wives. Gradually, the husbands received permission to visit them first, and subsequently moved to live with them from the prison. It should be added that many Decembrists had a serf servant with them. For example, princes Volkonskaya and Trubetskoy for 25 people.
On the day of his coronation, 26 August 1856, Emperor Alexander II the Liberator, meanly killed then by the followers of the Decembrists, pardoned all those involved in the events 14 December 1825.
It is necessary as soon as possible to deal with the villains and heroes in national history, to separate the wheat from the chaff. There should be one criterion: a personal contribution to the cause of strengthening and prospering of a single powerful Russian state, its stability and security. No supranational interests such as proletarian internationalism, European integration or world globalism, the ephemeral ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity should not weigh over the just and legitimate interests of the state-forming Russian people.
A lot of old problems and troubles have accumulated in our army over the past decades, which, it seems, have begun to be solved. The military budget is growing. The Armed Forces are quickly rearming, changing their appearance. Military increased salaries. A long-term housing epic, painful for people in uniform, ends. Today the army at first glance looks much better than a few years ago. But one of the unresolved, old, overripe is the question of the ideology, spirit, glorification of its military stories.
Any army cannot exist without an idea, traditions born from it and, of course, heroes. This is like a refueling for military equipment, when the most modern aircraft loaded to the eye of ammunition does not take off if it has dry tanks. Our army’s ideological “tanks” are not empty, but so many differently “fuel” are surprisingly mixed in them: from high-quality kerosene to, excuse me, donkey's urine, that its longitude, range and safety of its “flight” should be doubted.
Name Rosa Luxemburg
At the time of the birth of the Red Army, which arose as if out of the blue, in the pantheon of the glory of its heroes, who inspired the revolutionary fighters to the feat, was gaping emptiness. The first, in the absence of their own, were the heroes borrowed "over the hill": Spartak, Marat, Robespierre, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin ... This is not counting, of course, the founding fathers of the Red Army themselves: comrades Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin and others , whose names were called airplanes, armored cars and armored trains. Popular were then the popular rebels Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, who fought with the autocracy for the freedom of the working people. In 30-s, thanks to radio and cinema, the names of the “first marshal” of Voroshilov, Budyonny, Chapaev thundered all over the country ...
In connection with the unsuccessful beginning of the Great Patriotic War, time demanded a change of heroes for the soldiers and commanders of the retreating Red Army. Luxembourgers and libknechts, as well as Trotsky and others, who by then were enemies of the people, former party allies, were archived. And one of the frosty days of November 41 in the central square of the country almost forgotten names sounded from the rostrum of the Mausoleum: Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Suvorov, Dmitry Pozharsky, Dmitry Donskoy. For a long time, all of them were listed as hostile elements, representatives of the exploiting classes.
With the enemy in the same trench
Alas, with the end of the war, the revision of the ideological policy did not happen. It’s just that the “ideological trench” along with the former domestic revolutionaries and insurgents turned out to be a loyal Tsar servant Alexander Suvorov, who was persecuting the troubled Poles (who became our allies), the thief and the kata Emelku Pugachev. Or the holy blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, known not only as the winner of the Germans and Swedes, but also as the initiator of the suppression for the interests of all of Russia of the uprising raised by the Novgorodians. However, this is not the only incident, stumbling block standing in the way of the return of the Russian army to its true origins and true heroes.
On the eve of another significant event - the Decembrist uprisings, I would like to consider closer people who for a long time were almost models, standards for Soviet officers of later generations, who became dull and incomprehensible to the images of Chapaev and Voroshilov, who gradually migrated into anecdotes and bikes.
The Decembrists, though considered “terribly far from the people,” were nevertheless favored by Soviet propaganda as the “right” nobles — people of honor, conscience, and duty, who decided to rid the people of the hated monarchs by establishing a democratic republic. Who has not heard of the support of their ideas by young Pushkin, other beau monde workers of that time? Who has not watched the film “The Star of Captivating Happiness,” did not read books romanticizing their feat of self-sacrifice for the sake of a bright future? And how was it really? What kind of people were these? We will use some documents of that era, including the memoirs of eyewitnesses, contemporaries, and protocols of their interrogations.
Stars of deceptive happiness
So, what did their commanders promised the soldiers, giving the order to go to the Senate Square in connection with the need to swear allegiance to Emperor Nicholas, who came to the throne instead of his brother Constantine who had refused him? For example, captain Alexander Bestuzhev, without batting an eye, lied to his guards dragoons: “Konstantin sent me to you. If you believe in God, you will refuse to swear to another king than the one to whom you swore allegiance ... "And Lieutenant Anton Arbuzov, who commanded the naval guards crew, frankly blackmailed his subordinates:" An entire army stands in the vicinity of the capital, and we will be destroyed if we swear oath to Nikolai. " By the way, “Long live the Constitution!” - soldiers deceived by officers shouted, believing that this was the name of Konstantin Pavlovich’s wife.
After Nikolay Pavlovich’s attempt to persuade the rebels to surrender, which ended in a firefight, the governor of the capital, army favorite of Infantry General Mikhail Miloradovich, departed to the rebel troops. He addressed the soldiers who knew him well - the veterans of the Patriotic War with the simple question: “Which of you was with me at Kulm, Lutzen, Bautzen?” Those, hiding from shame eyes, were silent. "Well, thank God," exclaimed the general, "that there is not a single Russian soldier here!" After these words of the beloved combat general in the ranks of the rebellious troops, there was a noticeable excitement: among the grenadiers there were many of his comrades, participants in the glorious foreign campaign. And then dismissed from the army in due time for “noise and various indiscretions ... failure to pay money to the pastry shop and laziness to serve”, Lieutenant Peter Kakhovsky treacherously shot into the back of the national hero. First he coolly killed the commander of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment, Colonel Nicholas Styurler.Only after that, Nikolai Pavlovich ordered the use of artillery that put an end to the rebellion. A few days later, the Chernigov regiment stationed in Ukraine rebelled. However, here the situation got out of control of Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Muravyov-Apostol and Lieutenant Mikhail Bestuzhev-Rumin, who had led the rebellion, for another reason. Their subordinates (about a thousand people), after drinking heavily, apparently, for the courage of wine (184 buckets), began to rage, tearing off their epaulettes from officers, robbing civilians. They were beaten and the regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gustav Gebel. They brought to life only gun volleys.
Heroes from the inside
What did the Decembrists want all the same, who often appealed to God as the highest authority? Graf de Toll noted in his notes: “On the more than a hundred Decembrists living in Chita, only thirteen remained Christians, most of them were fond of Christianity either indifferently, or skeptically, or outright hostile ... They often mocked faith and especially observance of holidays , fasting and prayers. " But this did not prevent them from remaining fighters for freedom. And what is interesting: all the Decembrists were noble landowners, had serfs. And although Alexander I, at the beginning of his reign, issued the law “On Free Plowmen”, according to which landowners could release the peasants to the will (and always with the land), the freedom-loving Decembrists for some reason did not rush to use it. But the imperial general Miloradovich fallen from their hands did it at once, freeing all his peasants.
Well, what did the Decembrists see Russia of the future, freed from the despot tsar? Prince Sergei Trubetskoy was appointed to lead the rebel forces during the uprising, who were given the rights of a dictator. That is, in the event of their victory, Russia was not expected by a republic, not by democracy, but by a military dictatorship by the junta. The ideologue of the uprising, the author of Russkaya Pravda, a program document for the Decembrists, Colonel Pavel Pestel, believed that “gendarmes would be sufficient for the entire state to compile the internal 50 000 guards ...” And with the stranglers of freedom - the Romanovs, the number of gendarmes hardly reached five thousand. Further, the freedom-loving and free-thinker would consider deploying a network of secret agents and sex-workers: “Secret investigations and espionage are therefore not only permissible and lawful, but ... one can say the only means by which the highest piety is supplied.” It is felt that the rebels were strong-willed, resolute and probably very persistent and courageous people.
Is it so? Not really. For example, the failed dictator Colonel General Staff Prince Trubetskoy in the fateful day did not appear at all on the square. During the investigation, he first denied everything, and when, during the interrogation, irrefutable evidence was brought against him, he fell at the feet of the emperor and begged him for mercy. The same Pestel wrote penitential letters from the chamber of the Peter and Paul Fortress: “... I cannot justify myself before His Majesty. I ask only for mercy. ” The murderer Peter Kakhovsky confessed to his sovereign during interrogation: “My intentions were pure, but I see that he was mistaken in his methods. I do not dare ask you to forgive me of my delusion. I am already torn to pieces by your mercy to me ... "The romantic uprising is the poet Alexander Odoyevsky, who exclaimed on the square:" We will die! Oh, how glorious we will die! ”, Being in bonds, began writing denunciations of all the participants in the conspiracy known to him. And in this he was, alas, not alone. Perhaps the most disgusting thing that they gave out was not only the organizers, but also their subordinates, soldiers, who had been shot down by them for insurrection. However, the money needed for the “holy” uprising, the officers took the gentlemen from the same soldiers, not shunning to get into the regimental cashier.
"Deep in Siberian ores"
Interestingly, the prisoners were not beaten, tortured, or humiliated. During the investigation, they were put in solitary cells of the Peter and Paul Fortress, shackled and transferred to bread and water. Only five of them were executed, and the remaining 120 members of the uprising from among the nobles were sentenced to hard labor and settlement for various periods in Siberia. But they committed a state crime, a military coup, planned to take the life of the monarch, his family members, killed several people. For such things in other democratic countries they would be threatened with something more terrible. For example, in good old England, where only for talking about changing the laws of Her Majesty Colonel Edward Despéradi in 1807, they first hanged it, but after a minute they took it out of the loop. Then he had the entrails torn out, which were thrown into a fire laid out in front of him. And only after that he was beheaded, and the body was quartered.
And, finally, a lot of tears and wails have been shed over the bitter sufferings that the unfortunate "in the depths of Siberian ores" underwent. And what was really? Two years later, the shackles were removed from the Decembrists and the hard labor became something of an occupational therapy for them. “In the summer,” an eyewitness testifies, “a moat fell asleep, the watchmen and servants of the women bustled around, carrying folding chairs and chess to the work site. The guard officer shouted: “Gentlemen, it's time to go to work! Who is coming today? If there were not enough volunteers, the officer imploringly said: “Gentlemen, have anyone else add! And then the commandant will notice that very little! ". The watchmen carried shovels. Arriving at the place, having breakfast, drinking tea, playing chess. The soldiers settled down to rest. The warders finished the prisoners' breakfast. When exiles, as is well known, lived wives. Gradually, the husbands received permission to visit them first, and subsequently moved to live with them from the prison. It should be added that many Decembrists had a serf servant with them. For example, princes Volkonskaya and Trubetskoy for 25 people.
On the day of his coronation, 26 August 1856, Emperor Alexander II the Liberator, meanly killed then by the followers of the Decembrists, pardoned all those involved in the events 14 December 1825.
It is necessary as soon as possible to deal with the villains and heroes in national history, to separate the wheat from the chaff. There should be one criterion: a personal contribution to the cause of strengthening and prospering of a single powerful Russian state, its stability and security. No supranational interests such as proletarian internationalism, European integration or world globalism, the ephemeral ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity should not weigh over the just and legitimate interests of the state-forming Russian people.
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